Livermore Lab workers are attempting to organize a union before the University of California hands over management of the Energy Department lab to a new corporation Oct. 1.

Until then, lab workers are UC employees and the decision on whether to certify a union rests with the state Public Employees Relations Board. After Oct. 1, lab employees will work for a corporation run jointly by UC and several private companies including Bechtel Corp., which means they will have to petition for unionization with the National Labor Relations Board.

“In the private sector, the rules are a lot stiffer,” said Livermore lab computer scientist Jim Wolford, a member of the local union under the Society of Professionals, Scientists and Engineers which is conducting the organization campaign.

Leaders of the campaign claim UC is refusing to recognize the union and using stall tactics to delay the decision.

“Essentially what they are trying to do is drag this out past the Oct. 1 deadline,” said labor organizer Jan Gilbrecht.

UC denies the charges and says it has followed procedure and responded to PERB’s request for a formal response to the petition and awaits the decision.

“We fully respect the process being undertaken, and we respect the right of employees to choose or not to choose to be represented by a union,” said UC spokesman Chris Harrington.

SPSE began the campaign to unionize a year ago, hoping to protect workers from layoffs and reductions in the generous benefits they have as UC employees.

“We’re trying to hold on to the things that have made this a place that people wanted to come to work,” Wolford said.

In June, they had collected authorization cards from a majority of workers in the “skilled crafts” bargaining unit, such as plumbers, pipe fitters and mechanics, and filed a petition with PERB.

The skilled crafts and other bargaining units were defined by PERB in 1982 during previous efforts to organize.

However, UC responded to the petition by questioning the appropriateness of the bargaining unit, saying another group of workers should be included.

“The union identified a particular subset of employees, but for reasons that we do not know, it is choosing not to identify a group of employees with a similar set of skills,” Harrington said.

“We believe a hearing to determine the appropriate bargaining unit will be beneficial to all parties.”

Now, both sides are waiting for the board to either certify the union or call for a hearing, a move that union organizers fear will push the process past the Oct. 1 change in management.

If that deadline passes, organizers may have to start over with the National Labor Relations Board. They say this will make unionizing even more difficult because the “card check” option of collecting authorization signatures from employees won’t be available.

Instead they will need authorization from 30 percent of workers in a bargaining unit in order to call a one-day election. The date and location of the election is decided by the employer, which organizers say gives employers an unfair advantage because they can run a counter campaign or bribe employees to vote against unionization.

Card checks allow organizers to deal with employees one on one, often without the employer’s knowledge, so that workers can decide on their own without pressure from their boss, Gilbrecht said.

By filing objections rather than recognizing the union, Gilbrecht said, management is attempting to force workers to deal with NLRB’s stricter rules.

“We’re not driving the train on this,” lab spokeswoman Susan Houghton said. “We’re waiting just like they are for PERB’s decision. We have no authority over how quickly they do that.”

According to PERB, both sides are following the process, and it is not particularly unusual for employers to file objections or to question the makeup of bargaining units.